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In Search of the Source
In the pale sands of the Straight you meet a Genshaar Hunter, he waves you over. The Hunter lowers his rifle, 'I greet you G27, your name is written in Blood. I have been sent out to find you. The Elders have tasked me to thank you for the warning you gave the tribe of the looming danger that threatens to swallow us whole. As you advised a messenger was sent to Stormpost and we have now formed a strong bond. We actually make a formidable alliance, with their thinking and our strength we have pushed the Golgesh out Stormpost. But they still swarm the walls. I suspect this will take some time and many tales will be spun.' He reloads his rifle and scans the sands around him, 'This is a dangerous place, even by our standards. But I suspect you shall taste that more than I. My task was two fold, I was to find out what could be done about the crawling horror, and give you a Mission from Stormpost Tower. I see that the first part of my task is done. The Horror has been devoured from the inside out. I suspect your hand in this and I honor you. But Stormpost has a problem, the Ganth was far too big not to be seen walking across the Salt Run. They say, it must come from a secondary camp of Rah Kain. We have walked all our lands and found nothing. There is just one area we have not been. The Circle of Torment.' 'It is a cursed land, Silver Men and twisted machines fight an eternal battle there. All who enter the Circle get caught up in the Torment and if they return at all, it is never whole. The savagery of the fighting is inhuman, but it is the only place where we fear to go. Stormpost asks that you search the Circle of Torment for the Golgesh Camp. I council you my friend, refuse this. The Torment is a living hell of machines that cannot be killed.' The Hunter then takes out a Comms Unit from his backpack, 'I have to verify your success with the Mega Ganth. But we rarely come this far from our caverns. May I ask you to get something for us. The Saltfang is an Entity of strange biology. Its blood is toxic in a manner that boggles the mind. I suspect that the Golgesh living weaponry will not react well to it.' He hands you a Blueprint, 'Will you get us a Saltfang Quart. I'm sure the Stormpost boffins can synthesize it into some sort of weapon.' You receive 1 x Saltfang Quart Blueprint The Genshaar Hunter talks into his Comms Unit, 'Did you manage to get that Saltfang Quart? I'm sure it will be useful against the Golgesh.' The Hunter takes the Quart from you, 'You have my thanks Unit. It is up to you if you do as Stormpost requests and search the Circle of Torment for the supposed Golgesh Camp. If you do, there is a tall metal tower to the West of the Circle. You should head for that, at least it's an obvious point to focus on in that chaos. I would say no, but you must choose your own way in this world.' 'I had best return to Stormpost, be safe G27 Unit.' You had best search the Circle of Torment for a secondary Rah Kain Camp. The Circle is a war torn land. Ruined tools of conflict litter the floor. This battle must have lasted for years uncounted for this amount of carnage. Amidst the shots fired you hear the whine of servos. You follow the noise and find a strange wounded warrior flailing around in pain. You rush up to the Warrior and are shocked to discover that the cybernetic suit has no occupant. There is simply static coming from a speaker within the suit. The flailing of the suit gives the unmistakable look of pain. You link up your Datapad, the on board diagnostic starts up immediately. It detects several lists of system errors that all revolve around there being nobody in the suit but oddly find that there is a massive storage medium within the suit. It is brimming with data. So much so that it is overloading the limited computation capabilities of the Battlesuit. But there seems to be a repeating cycle of specific data objects that keep repeating. The Suit seems to be flagging these objects as critical and is executing them over and over. But that is not causing the suit to lay flailing around on the ground. You skip past these errors and then find a Critical Failure List. It details the Data Stream has been destroyed so that the CPU cannot access the suits sensors and movement servos. The Diagnostic Software scans the suit and prints out a Blueprint. You will need to replace the Data Stream so that the Soldier can at least function. You receive 1 x Accord Data Stream Blueprint You return to find the wounded Battlesuit still flailing it's arms around. You remove the broken Data Stream and the suit collapses and lays still. You then insert the new one into the open port. The arm with the Sniper Rifle snaps up immediately and there is a loud metallic 'CLICK'. The bodyless suit shakes it's rifle in frustration, 'Out of ammo, how did that happen!' You draw your own weapon and rest it on the fallen warriors metal chest then say slowly, 'I have just gone to the bother to replace your broken Data Stream and that's all the thanks I get?' The suit suddenly chuckles, 'Nonsense, it would take thousands of years for Accord technology to fail. Either that or Rebellion forces get the drop on me. Which is less than likely.' You suddenly realize that the Soldier does not seem to have a strong grip on his situation. An idea suddenly occurs to you. After helping him to his feet you grab his sniper rifle barrel. Then lead him over a small rise. Beneath you is another Accord Sniper, he constantly scans the area. The Sniper gasps, 'That Soldier has died! We must get him to the Tower as soon as possible.' You then grab the Warriors other hand and force it where his face should be. The metallic hand resists for a second, but when it does not meet with flesh, it starts to feel for his own head. 'Where is my face!' You say you have no idea. Every Soldier you have met has no body, just the moving suit. The Warrior then goes silent for a long while. You then say that you have been sent to look for a Golgesh Camp that is suspected to be in the Area. The Warrior shrugs, I can't remember what that is. I get the feeling that the Golgesh are a bad thing. But I can't place why. We must get to the Accord HQ, its a Tower on the West Flank. That is where the Main Battle Computer is. We need to talk to it, it will know what to do. But its quite a distance from here. I shall scout ahead, meet me in the Field. I don't want too get separated. The Field is filled with Floating mines. You have to watch your step or you will set them off. The mines seem to be able to direct their movement, but the wind seems to blow them off whatever course they want to follow. You are forced into a small corner and are surprised to find the Accord Sniper. The Sniper waves at you, 'Get down, I have no ammo. We need to get through, I had no idea things had gotten this bad. I pray that the Rebellion has not won. There is no telling what will happen if they do. Anyway, would you destroy 200 Hover Spheres, that should let us get through.'